The Dumbbell Nebula

About This Photograph

It is somewhat ironic that the deaths of stars can be some of the most beautiful spectacles in the sky. Here we see the Dumbbell Nebula, the remains of a star not unlike our sun, its outer layers flung off into space and illuminated by the hot but fading ember of the original star. This remnant appears here as the small, blue star at the center of the nebula. Having run out of hydrogen "fuel," it shines only by the heat leftover from its life as a true star. Over a period of thousands of years, the nebula will expand and dissipate, and the stellar remnant will cool and fade from visibility.

This is an enhanced natural color image: H-alpha and O-III data were blended with the original clear-filtered data to form a new luminance channel. This allowed a less aggressive DDP on the clear-filtered data, so the star images are much tighter